ORAL HISTORIES

Family origins; childhood in California; working in stores; becoming a singer; early singing jobs; meeting and marrying Roy Moore; singing around Nevada; stuck in Tonopah; becoming dealers; off to Alaska. Work in Alaska; back to Nevada; health problem; Miss Senior Nevada contest; a musician's life.

George Ishmael's early days; living in Ash Meadows; the Ismael family; working in Death Valley and Beatty; life on the Post Ranch; dismantling Rhyolite; the China Ranch in Tecopa; marriage; Harry Gower; the Pahrump and Manse Ranches; Devore, California; the Dick Bell family in Smoky Valley. The Ishmaels - hard-working and strong; the Tonopah & Tidewater Ranch; World War II; burial in Beatty cemetary; a meteor in Ash Meadows; an odd accident; Grandfather Ishmael and Aunt Beulah.

The family in Cornwall; coming to Tonopah; Mrs. Coombs's boarding house; silicosis; living in Gilbert and Cornwall; Tonopah mines. Tonopah mines - their characteristics, and haw deep they went. Tonopah mines; Ozzie Coombs's death; mines and smelting. Miners' lives; silicosis; mining specialties. Skips vs. cages; education in Cornwall; the mechanics of mining; high-grading; Tonopah's red-light district. Venereal disease; a worker's "diamonds"; Sheriff Bill Thomas; rustling a job; leasing. Gilbert in its boom days; running away from school; the Belmont fire of 1911; school years; working at Round Mountain. And more........

Tungsten mining in Ophir Canyon and a move to Round Mountain; leaving the auto repair business and building a tungsten mill; the Bobby claims in Ophir Canyon; a tungsten promotion in Grantsville; the economics of tungsten production; working at a sawmill in Bridgeport, California; thoughts on the auto repair business; helping R. G. McCracken at a Reveille Valley lead mine; trying to recover same mining equipment through the courts.Further discussion of leasing in the Round Mountain placer; going to work on the Nevada Test Site and observations on radiation; work in the Q1-2 shaft on the Nevada Test Site, then working on Nevada Test Site machinery; thoughts on machinery work in general; living in the camp at Area 12 on the Nevada Test Site.

Travels in the Pacific in World War II; the education of a mining engineer; early work in the mining field; joining IMV; area clays; extruding the clay; different types of clay..More types of clay; organoclad clays; future uses for clays; quality control.

Growing up in Michigan; moving to Nevada; cocktail waitressing in Las Vegas. Cocktail waitress work; seeing the Amargosa Valley for the first time; buying a ranch in the Amargosa Valley. Operating a bar-casino; recent clay mining in the Amargosa Valley. Clay production; ranching and water problems. Housing in the Amargosa Valley; "Amargosa Days" and other celebrations; on Lathrop Wells; a visit to the Billy Mine; Businesses in the Amargosa Valley; promoting the Amargosa Valley; problems with some of the miners in the Stateline. Achieving a climate of respect in the Stateline; Ash Meadows Ranch; the pupfish in Devil's Hole; ethnic groups in the Amargosa Valley.

Growing up in Michigan; moving to Nevada; cocktail waitressing in Las Vegas. Cocktail waitress work; seeing the Amargosa Valley for the first time; buying a ranch in the Amargosa Valley. Operating a bar-casino; recent clay mining in the Amargosa Valley. Clay production; ranching and water problems. Housing in the Amargosa Valley; "Amargosa Days" and other celebrations; on Lathrop Wells; a visit to the Billy Mine; Businesses in the Amargosa Valley; promoting the Amargosa Valley; problems with some of the miners in the Stateline. Achieving a climate of respect in the Stateline; Ash Meadows Ranch; the pupfish in Devil's Hole; ethnic groups in the Amargosa Valley.

The Bowman family and dairy farming in the Moapa Valley; Walter Bowman buys the Manse Ranch; memories of the Kellogg and Pahrump Ranch; Mormon pioneers. The Leavitts - early settlers; Perry and his wife move to the Pahrump Valley; life in the valley in the early days. Memories of Pop Buol; problems with weather in the valley; the golden age of valley agriculture - cotton; what makes a good dairyman. Different soils in the Pahrump Valley; complexities of growing cotton; how people adjust to life in the valley; the role of the LDS Church in the valley; looking to the future.

Family backgrounds; railroading in Nevada; Amargosa Valley and tourists in the 1920s and 1930s; the clay mine. The T&T Railroad; farming and ranching; early settlers. Shorty's story; Scotty's story; devil-may-care living 50 years back; life in Shoshone. Social life in Death Valley Junction; tourists and Death Valley; railroad living. Goldfield; Beatty - a good place to be, up or down on your luck. Silver Lake alive and dead; planes from March Field. The deplorable condition of the roads in the early days; memories of Johnnie, Pahrump Valley, Pop Buol, the Pahrump and Manse Ranches; the first cotton in the valley; feuding and shooting in the area; the Lee brothers and the Lost Breyfogle Mine. Indian headquarters at the Manse Ranch; the Harsh White family and Della White Fisk's memories; the story of Eddie Miles; recollections of Lois Kellogg; acquiring land in the Pahrump Valley.

The elder Bradshaw's youth in California; Mr. and Mrs. Bradshaw meet and marry; Mrs. Bradshaw's memories of the San Francisco earthquake; the Enright family; Nevada characters; from Sodaville to Goldfield; the Depression - hard times; lost boys Bitter winters in Goldfield; mining promotion; leasing. Work as a section hand and leasing on the side; marriage; work at a mill; moving to Tonopah; running the Union Oil bulk plant; construction at the Tonopah Army Air Base. The Mobil bulk plant; early work with Cavanaugh Brothers; E. L. Cord; retirement and prospecting; mining in Round Mountain and Goldfield - then and now; making money in Goldfield as a youth; Tonopah's red light district; credit in the grocery stores.